vetlongwalks home & pf

a few weeks back, i wrote that i haven't done any decorating for christmas . i mentioned that the only attempt at putting some christmas spirit to my pethouse was the act of purchasing these "christmacy" fabric and thread: well, i did manage to start sewing the slipcovers for my twin couches. but was interrupted when i flew to tangub city for this year's christmas symbols. thus, the delay. to rectify the situation, i rushed back to sewing when i returned home last tuesday, december 11 - to ensure that my little pethouse will have a little taste of christmas. my reading nook before my reading nook now a very bare wall a cheapskate christmas wall decor: [last year's christmas lights + 12 christmas cards bought at PhP10 each at the metro] hanging lamp from coron, palawan bought during feb. 2012 trip hanging lamp christmas version [100 RICE lights at PhP60, KaKing Parkmall} old curtain and stripe slipcovers DIY curtain and slipcover...

unlike most women, i don't frequent fashion stores much. i know i should. i'm the first to admit that my wardrobe (lack of it, actually) is very much wanting and is in deep need of changing. one of my staff mentioned that it's odd that i frequent hardware stores. hehe, i love visiting ace hardware, tru value, and cebu home builders. i just couldn't get enough of the lovely merchandise displayed in those stores. in my defense, i like going there because there are so many things there that i'd love to have for my house. i get ideas there. sure, i couldn't afford most of the products they carry, but it doesn't stop me from going at all. so, cheapskate as i am, it was truly a delight when i discovered this store at the ground floor of parkmall:

and yet, there's no trace of it in or out of my pet house. while i love the idea of decorating for the christmas holidays, the cost of decorations is just too expensive. haha, i'm super cheapskate that every time i attempt at buying christmas decors, i usually end up calculating the total decor costs and often end up returning the items to their shelves. i just couldn't convince myself of the practicality of shelling out moolah i could use for something else, such as paying off credit card bills. speaking of credit card bills, i learned a hard lesson on it. friends, do not make the mistake i did. it was truly stupid of me to let someone use my card to pay for her airline ticket purchase. what initially cost a little over 7K reached 13K now due to interests. the original purchased happened july of 2011, and i only was paid php 500 pesos for it until now. haha, i know, it was my fault for trusting. like i said, it was a hard lesson. add insult to injury i came across a provis...

this post won't be about how creative i can be. primarily because, i'm not creative. I'M JUST NOT, sadly:( what i am, however, is CHEAPSKATE and someone who apparently IS unable to throw away damaged items. every time i'm at the metro ayala home department, i never fail to check out the foldable wooden breakfast table on display there. i also never fail to check the price tag, and the said table costs almost PhP500. the price tag always keeps me from taking the said product to the counter and have the cashier ring it for me. so it was for quite a long time that i endured eating in front of my trusty 5-year old eee surf without a decent table. i would just hold my plate in one hand, and eat with the other hand. now, as i've been much of a couch potato of late, i quite expectedly put on back the weight i lost. the plastic stool broke when i sat on it and caused the demise of the stool. i was about to throw away the damaged stool when i noticed a half-an-inch-thick...

per my usual Saturday routine, i woke up late. after i prepared myself some rice, hot dog, scrambled egg, and coffee for brunch, i found myself with nothing much to do. well, i got a text from tes informing me about a basil valdez show over at casino espanol tonight. a friend of hers and jam had free tickets to the show. but as it was raining when i read her message, i told her i'd consider it if the rain stopped. however, as the afternoon passed - my body craved to just stay at home and thus finally declined going to the show. to occupy myself, i decided to bake myself some cupcakes. i did mention in some past post that i'd try to start baking as a hobby. well, here are proofs of my first attempt:

and there were TWO. OK. so, i have no flare (oops, wrong) flair for drama. LOL!!! admittedly, the attempt was just "EHK!?/%". whoever said that finding a catchy introduction to a post is easy was either lying or just pure genius. well, i know of one genius whose command of words is out of this world. incidentally, the genius (what i endearingly call my friend the nevergirl ) was actually the person who gifted me with one of the two "lights" in my home right now. oh, scratch that. in her words, the lamp wasn't for me - but a present for my little house! nevertheless, mine or not - i love it, and it's yellow to my added delight! presenting... Little Sun this solar powered lamp is something she picked up at tate modern, in london. it's a little piece of beauty by an icelandic artist named olafur eliasson . if my first light is all the way from across the world, the second one is from our own philippine island that is coron, palawan. i scored this ...

yes, that was the plan . i'm weird and difficult as i am now, and i can't afford to add 'christian' to that list. people have their own perceptions about christians, and more importantly if a lot of people find me difficult to get along with now, how much more if they learn that i want to follow JESUS. how will they react? will people i know start to stay away from me? will they think of me having an early midlife crisis? how can i tell my mother that i no longer wish to accompany her to our annual devotion to a particular saint? i maintain my respect for my mother and her beliefs, and i have nothing bad to say against that specific saint and all others for that matter. but recent events have led me to form my own belief system. i honestly don't know what happened. this desire to follow JESUS came as a huge surprise even to myself. one of my closest friends c even reminded me of how i VEHEMENTLY HATED GOD for some of the things that happened to my life. the...

managing one's finances is a skill i believe an individual should learn. the world's tough and getting tougher. one of the best defenses to cope with changing times is to be financially responsible - to know how to deal with money. personal finance is one of my favorite topics. i love it not because i've acquired the skill to perfectly manage my finances (or lack thereof, haha!), but because i find the topic relevant and interesting. more importantly, i love it because i need help and is yet to learn, acquire or be financially responsible. if on the outside, i may appear OK to most people, but believe me - i'm like many who struggle with handling finances. while i may not be in deep financial mess as some people, i'd like to hope that i will never be. but as they say, the world is round and nothing these days is predictable. thus, it's best to equip oneself with knowledge on financial or money matters. learning about money matters is very important whether you...

in my previous post, i mentioned that i'd like to start a hobby - baking, specifically. while i'm still uncertain whether i could be truly serious about it, i somehow found myself buying these at the grocery this afternoon: the bottom item isn't exactly a stuff for baking. it's actually a bamboo sushi mat. well, one of these days i'd like to try making my own maki or kimbap, too. so, while i'm still convincing myself that starting a hobby will be good for me and that actually factoring in the ingredients in my household budget will be worth it, i'm just making do with preparing my own crepes for breakfast, cheapskate-style. hehe, as i've mentioned before, i'm financially-challenged so buying all the right ingredients is something i've yet to do. the goal for the time being is making sure that what i prepared is edible, haha. well, so far nothing untoward has happened to me while i've been stuffing myself with nothing but these; crepes-hot...

how i wish i have this gooey goodness right this moment! or this cookies and cream slice... yum!!! perhaps i should learn to bake. now that's a thought. i love eating sweet treats, cakes and all, but don't know how to bake my own. when the craving for these yummy treats hit me, i usually end up at our local red ribbon bakeshop. (notice the red ribbon box on the second picture?) if only the cakes there were not expensive, i swear i'd be at their shop every day. but then again, i'm not supposed to eat cakes or anything with 'wheat' in it, according to my self-imposed diet to curb my adenomyosis symptoms. anyhow, i wonder how one starts baking as a hobby. what does one need to take up this hobby? how expensive can it get? haha, i'm cheapskate and anything that costs a lot usually turns me off.

i should be a the beach right now!!! unfortunately, moolah issues and so i'm stuck at home! drat. the only good thing about being stuck at home is i now have the time to be present online. although, i'm online every day at work, i rarely open facebook or any social media network and update my blogs. at least with a few days off work, i can hopefully write a few post for my travel blog - not that i have a following, hehe. my almost 6 year old blog over at wordpress only have 45,683 page views to date. i learned that to have increased traffic, you need to write interesting enough posts and you constantly update your blogs to have a following. i don't do either, haha. i'm just plain lazy and cheap to buy a decent laptop, or a netbook. i still only have my trusty 5-year old asus 2g surf eee pc and it's kind of difficult to use it. i only have this opportunity now because i borrowed the office's the toshiba netbook . yep, i brought home some work. bummer. i just ha...

in celebration of valentine's day, here's a little dose of laughter to all the hopeless romantics, the loveless, and the in-betweens. it's from a forwarded e-mail from way back. author of the letters are unknown. due credit is given to that person for these crafty and fun letters. makes you wonder how the love landscape has changed, huh? happy valentine's day, everyone! read on and enjoy... - vet ================================= A MODERN LOVE LETTER Dearest Julia, I am very happy to inform you that I have fallen in love with you since Tuesday, the 17th of August 2001. With reference to the meeting held between us on the 17th of August 2001 at 1500 hours, I would like to present myself as a prospective lover. Our love affair would be on probation for a period of no less than three months and depending on compatibility,would be made permanent. Of course, upon completion of probation, there will be continuous relationship training and relationship appraisal schemes leadin...

Have you ever sworn to yourself that you'll never ever talk to a particular person again? You pray that you'll never ever meet that person again because just looking at that person's face makes you seethe? Or that when you ever meet the person again, you'll simply ignore the person, walk away, or perhaps grab the opportunity to ask the questions that were left hanging when you parted ways? So I had this friend once. From my perspective, I severed our ties without any anger. I was happy for that friend because things in his life finally fell into place. I knew then that it was what he wanted, and I'd have no problem walking away. Right from the start, we've established that the moment he finds his grapefruit (that's what he calls a GF), we'll part ways. I've mentioned that unloading his concerns to a friend of the opposite sex and not to the grapefruit could sabotage his relationship, and I wouldn't be part of that. What saddened me was, every tim...

what could life be like if humans don't have capacity to keep memories? will they UNcomplicate life? one of my guilty pleasures is watching the series CHUCK. the show's plots aren't exactly the kind that leave you breathless like Prison Break did before. however, i never stopped watching the show because the characters somehow grew on me. the show has endearing characters that make me wonder sometimes how it would be like to meet those people in real life. apart from the characters, the show's humor and the sense of family among the characters are the reasons i never miss watching an episode. last night, i watched CHUCK closed its curtains after five seasons. the writers ended the show with sarah losing her memories due to a defective version of the intersect program, which she downloaded into her brain. this left chuck with a wife who can't remember anything from the last five years of her life. no memories of him and the life they've had before. who do you thi...